During recent years, the use of eye make-up has received increased emphasis and the application of cosmetics about the eyes, such as mascara, has become increasingly more popular. Applicators which are particularly designed and adapted for applying mascaras to curl, color, comb and lengthen eyelashes have been developed by prior workers in the art. Other applicators which are useful in separating the lashes when combing are also known and have been employed by others in an effort to achieve a more uniform distribution of mascara upon the hairs which comprise the eye lashes.
Brush-like applicators are known and have generally been constructed in the past with suitable bristles. In view of the intended use of the applicators with such fine hairs as found in eyelashes, the applicator bristles had to be of relatively small diameter and length to be effective in the accurate placement and application of mascara upon the lashes.
In order to satisfactorily apply cosmetics such as mascara, prior workers in the art have utilized longitudinally aligned bristles (Montgomery U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,650) or helically arranged bristles or springs (Kingsford U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,248). Molded teeth or tine portions (Spatz U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,823) have also been developed for lash combing purposes. In the case of applicators wherein teeth or tines have been employed, the presently available manufacturing techniques do not permit such teeth or tines to be fabricated of diameter small enough to effectively apply mascara to the eyelashes in a controlled manner. In those instances wherein bristles have been employed for cosmetic application purposes, it has always been necessary to affix such bristles to the wand by employing an additional connector, such as twisted stainless steel wire during the assembly process. The bristles were secured at one end to the twisted wires and the wires could then be affixed to the plastic wand in a relatively easy and reliable manner with known fabrication techniques. Examples of such twisted wires can be found in Montgomery U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,650, Zulberti, U.S. Pat. No. 4,175,574 and Levine, et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,676.
Other prior workers in the art have developed mascara applicators that employed circular grooves or reservoirs to provide a mascara storage area immediately adjacent to the bristles. Levine et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,676 is exemplary of such a construction. The circular grooves or reservoirs have served the purpose of providing adequate mascara storage facilities, but have proved to be detrimental in that they tended to group or bunch the lashes together during application, a decidedly unwanted condition.
Until the present time, by utilizing known fabrication and molding equipment and methods, it has not been possible to construct a mascara applicator having integral, small diameter, filament-like molded plastic brush elements cast in the same mold which is employed for fabrication of the wand itself. Also, the need remains to provide a mascara applicator with built in storage facilities that will not group lashes together during the application process.